


Let it Bloom

by Mersheeple



Series: Hearts&Cauldrons Prompts [58]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Hogwarts Eighth Year, Severus Snape Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:00:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25744732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mersheeple/pseuds/Mersheeple
Summary: Hermione, in her Eighth Year, finds a garden. It seems only one person knows it exists and he does NOT want to share.
Relationships: Hermione Granger & Severus Snape
Series: Hearts&Cauldrons Prompts [58]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1805746
Comments: 12
Kudos: 46





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [galaxyeyes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/galaxyeyes/gifts).



> Happy Birthday GE! This story got away from me and I am desperately going to try to get it all finished for you by tonight...
> 
> <3 <3

She found the roof top garden one morning during her free period. It was quiet, walled in on three sides by the castle with the final side offering a stunning view over the Black Lake and the Forbidden Forest. The garden itself was filled with fragrant blooms that seemed to have absolutely no magical properties, which originally confused Hermione but she loved it so much that she didn’t even question the lack of magic. She opened her book and turned to the chapter she needed, reading in the silence, the air less heavy than most areas of the castle, with none of the negative memories she associated with her time there.

It was almost too quiet and she wished that the silence were less oppressive, more calming, more interesting. Or in fact, less silent. She laughed softly to herself and continued reading. The place was very pretty, nonetheless. A moment later, she heard the sounds of bubbling water and she looked up rapidly, scanning the garden for a change. A small stone waterfall with a tiny pond had appeared out of nowhere and she giggled. Further proof, she assumed, that Hogwarts was in fact sentient. All she needed now was a purring cat and a glass of lemonade and her time here would be well spent. A glass of lemonade appeared by her left hand and she laughed, toasting the air as she took a sip of perfectly cooled cloudy lemonade.

She came back to the garden daily, always listening to the water fountain, always asking for a glass of lemonade, which she had finally realised was probably made by the House Elves, and studying for her NEWTs exams. It took a week before she was aware that there was someone, or rather, some _thing_ else in the garden. It was after lunch on a Wednesday that she met the other occupant of the little garden that had become her haven.

The cat came towards her nervously, sniffing the air and eventually it lay down against her book. Hermione, having dealt with skittish cats before, knew not to move until the cat accepted her presence in its’ space. However, as an animal lover it was incredibly hard for her. Eventually though, the cat began to run against her and she smiled, rubbing the patch between its ears. Now this? This was perfect.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severus visits HIS garden

Severus Snape loved this garden. It was peaceful, and always had been. He had found it in his fifth year when trying to avoid the Marauders and had used it as the perfect place to sit. He had designed the garden himself, or at least, with the help of Hogwarts. It was silent and peaceful and beautiful and all his. Until it wasn’t.

He walked into the garden one Wednesday after lunch, his favourite free period of the week and one he insisted on if he had to deal with know-it-all Gryffindors and obnoxiously bratty Slytherins, and spotted something new immediately. His garden was no longer silent. It almost felt like it wasn’t his. He could here three new noises and they grated on his nerves.

Firstly, it was the running water, a noise he found only served to make him thirsty or desperate for the bathroom. The entire reason he had like this garden was its’ silence, the one place in the castle that his nearly constant headache finally abated.

Secondly, it was the sound of the cat meowing again. It had been here twice before and he had shooed it away but it was tenacious and seemed to somehow have accepted him as its human. And so, he vaguely tolerated it, as long as it didn’t meow. The meowing grated on his nerves. He quite liked the purring though, but he would never admit to it.

Thirdly, there was a giggling girl sitting, no, _lying_ on the floor in one of the less shaded areas. Her skin was tanned and she was lying on what appeared to be her robes. He recognised her but he couldn’t remember ever seeing so much skin, so much of her. It made him irrationally angry.

“Miss Granger, I suggest you put your robes on. Your lesson starts in twenty five minutes and, don’t you have to get all the way down to the dungeons for that?” She had jumped at his voice and it made him want to laugh. Although he knew that was probably cruel. But then, hadn’t he always been cruel to her? It was no wonder she was glaring at him right now.

“I do Sir, but don’t you have to go to the exact same place?” She stood up, vanishing the dust and dirt from her robes, and slipping her hands inside them, thankfully covering up her very tempting skin. He frowned slightly, wondering when a woman’s skin had last been _tempting_ , especially a woman that was little more than a girl.

“Ah but this garden always gives me the exact door I need to arrive just outside my classroom.” He raised an eyebrow as he smirked, knowing he was wasting her time and would be able to take points off of Gryffindor for her tardiness. He watched her, incredulously, as she slowly buttoned her robes and walked towards him, her eyebrow raised in a perfect parody of his. She said nothing, only smirked, as she walked past him and brushed against him as if he was in the way. She touched a stone against the wall of the castle and opened the door, leaving it opened wide enough for him to see that she, too, had learned how to make the garden transport her to where she needed to go. He swore beneath his breath and bent down, scratching between the ears of the cat as she rubbed against him, purring softly and calming him down, just in time for him to leave the garden and make his way into the classroom, catching her eye briefly as she smiled smugly.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severus starts to talk. (Warning for mild angst with HEA)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GalaxyEyes, lovely lady, I hope you have/have had a wonderful day, hopefully a day as wonderful as you deserve. <3 <3

He would never admit to liking the brat. That wasn’t his way, not really. He tolerated her company though. Sometimes, he even felt calmer in her company. The cat would purr more when the two of them sat together. It was nice. Severus would sit and meditate, simple meditation techniques that he had been taught by the Muggle therapist he had never told anyone but her that he visited. She attempted to help him to get used to the idea of talking to someone who knew the situation he had put himself in, but he only told her snippets here and there, talking into the ether, not acknowledging her in any way.

“You know, Albus used to like to make me wait to go to Poppy until after I’d given my report. I’d stand there, shaking and bloody from all the abuse I’d suffered at Tom’s hand and wonder… ‘which one of them is truly the monster?’ and sometimes, I didn’t even know the answer myself.”

“You know, Albus gave me nine months to prepare to kill him and then proceeded to treat me like trash so it wouldn’t hurt my soul or hurt me as much. He didn’t want anyone else to have Horcruxes like Tom had.”

“You know, that last year here without anyone, was the hardest of my life. And considering how hard my life has been, that’s saying something.”

“You know,” he said softly one day, talking more to the cat than to her, “when I first saw you here, in my garden, I didn’t know what to say. All I wanted was to yell and scream at you to just leave me alone and stop being so damn noisy in _my_ garden. But it wasn’t the noise…”

“It wasn’t the noise I hated, you know, it was the fact that you were so very happy. What right did you have to be happy? You fought in the war, you lost people…why were you happy?”

One day he spoke directly to her, instead of the cat. He stared at her, practically pinning her to the ground with his staring, and opened his mouth, closing and opening it twice before he shook himself and then opened his mouth a third time, blurting out the most awkward sentence she had ever heard from me.

“Would you…are you…that is…might I consider you a friend?” She looked at him, surprised he even had to ask and then it hit her that he probably had never had a friend, after Lily Evans Potter of course.

“Sir, you talk to me, you smile at me when you think I’m not looking, you haven’t snapped at me in months and, technically speaking, I am barely a student anymore, yet I come back to this garden every day, especially when I know that you are here. The only thing missing is an offer of an Apprenticeship and then you will be able to keep me around Hogwarts for longer. Once I get my exam results, I think we can suggest that we will definitely be friends.”

“To hell with the exam results, I’ll offer you an Apprenticeship right now if I get to keep you as a friend.” The words were out of his mouth before he had a chance to even think. She looked at him in surprise and blushed, smiling at him prettily.

“You can keep me. Can I keep you Severus?”


End file.
